Pilots Allege That Gulfstream
Falsified Work-Hour Records

By

Andy Pasztor and

Susan Carey

Updated May 29, 2009 12:01 a.m. ET

Current and former pilots and other employees at Gulfstream International Airlines allege that the company regularly falsified certain flight-time records so pilots could be scheduled to work more hours than permitted under federal safety rules.

Gulfstream flies commuter routes under contract for three large carriers and has been at the center of heightened scrutiny of regional airlines since the Feb. 12 crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 that killed 50 people. While it was operated by another regional carrier, Colgan Air Inc., a unit of Pinnacle Airlines Corp., Flight 3407's captain previously worked for Gulfstream and trained at its affiliated training academy.

Pilots involved in the two other most recent fatal crashes involving U.S. regional airlines had also either spent time at Gulfstream or its training academy, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

More

Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration proposed a $1.3 million penalty against Gulfstream, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The agency cited, among other things, "scheduling crew members in excess of daily and weekly flight-time limitations."

David Hackett, chief executive of Gulfstream International Group Inc., the airline's parent, said in an interview Thursday that the carrier never changed flight times with the intent of skirting the rules. He said the FAA investigation, spanning a nine-month period, found 18 instances of suspect schedules, but the company believes there was only a single instance of pilots flying longer than allowed.

In fact, Mr. Hackett said, the airline's dispatch system wouldn't generate the paperwork necessary for a flight to depart if crew members would be exceeding their legal time limit. Gulfstream is now auditing all of its flight logs to ensure they match the schedules in the computer systems, something that wasn't done in previous years.

"We can say without equivocation," Mr. Hackett said, "there was no systemic" problem.

Mary Hebig, who worked as a crew-scheduling supervisor at the carrier from March 2005 to July 2007, said in an interview that the flight-dispatch department frequently and retroactively changed flight hours in the computer system without conferring with pilots or with her department.

When an initial check of computerized schedules showed that certain pilots had run out of allowable flight hours, according to Ms. Hebig, "dispatch would call back and say, check them again." Often, it was apparent the numbers had been changed between calls and "suddenly, the crew had a rebirth; they were now legal to fly" more trips, she alleged.

By going back and altering records only slightly, it was possible to get some cockpit crews to fly longer than they otherwise could have, she said. Ms. Hebig said neither her department nor individual pilots could make such changes.

Ms. Hebig, who previously worked as a crew-scheduler for five other carriers, said she complained to Gulfstream management, but never got an answer that satisfied her. She said she resigned because "the situation was very stressful" and "I kept thinking, 'What if there was a crash?' "

In recent interviews, several current and former pilots confirmed her account of scheduling practices. Some pilots said they compared their logbook entries to faxes of their electronically generated master schedule, and discovered the computerized system had been altered to reduce the number of hours actually flown. The pilots alleged that changes were intentionally entered for captains and copilots that were exactly the same -- and didn't jibe with log books.

Gulfstream said changes sometimes were necessary because data had been wrongly entered.

Mr. Hackett said Thursday that the scheduling system "will lead to mistakes every once in a while" because pilots call in their actual departure times, but that "no games are ever played" to skirt the rules. Mr. Hackett also said there was "nothing systemic" in what the FAA uncovered and "never has anyone tried to do the wrong thing."

Allegations about the work hours were passed along to federal regulators and congressional investigators about a year ago. In a federal "whistleblower" complaint filed in December 2007, former Gulfstream Capt. Kenny Edwards told the FAA: "I often hear stories by our young first officers that horrify me. Many of them are being intimidated to accept trips that they know will exceed federal regulations," including flying more than seven days in a row and working more than 16 hours per day.

Capt. Edwards also said in his complaint that some pilots routinely flew 9.5 hours in one day, when the FAA's limit typically was eight hours.

However, an FAA spokeswoman said last week that the agency's investigation determined the discrepancies in Gulfstream flight records stemmed from clerical -- not intentional -- errors transferring flight-hour data from aircraft logbook records to electronic records. "We didn't find any evidence of deliberate action" to falsify records, spokeswoman Laura Brown said. On Thursday, she said the FAA doesn't "have any evidence" indicating the "discrepancies were deliberate."

An internal airline document indicates that as early as July 2007, some Gulfstream managers expressed concern about widespread problems with the accuracy of the airline's computerized crew-scheduling system.

A July 13, 2007, memo from Capt. Doug Smith, then vice president of safety, viewed by The Wall Street Journal, urged pilots to "keep a personal and accurate track of your flight and duty times&hellip;. If a discrepancy arises with what is your actual [time] and what the airline's computer shows, bring it to the attention of the scheduler so that an accurate correction can be determined."

Mr. Smith couldn't be reached for comment Thursday.

Capt. Edwards was fired by Gulfstream in December 2007 after he refused to fly a plane that he said had malfunctioning safety equipment. The airline, in a termination letter, said the plane had been legal to operate.

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.